Film

And Then There Were None

Name: And Then There Were None
Genre: Crime, Drama, Mystery
Released: 1945
Cast: Barry Fitzgerald, Walter Huston, Louis Hayward, Roland Young, June Duprez

René Clair's brisk, blackly funny take on Agatha Christie's most ruthless plot: ten guilty strangers, one island, no way off. It plays the dread and the wit in the same breath, trusting Barry Fitzgerald's dry Irish detective and a genuinely starry ensemble to carry both. Compact and stagey in the best sense, with an ending that softens Christie's cruelty just enough to send you off smiling rather than shattered.

TMDb rating

7.1

If you liked this

Murder on the Orient Express1974

Christie's other great closed-circle puzzle, done as opulent as this one is spare — a train instead of an island, and a murderers' row of stars circling Albert Finney's fussy detective.

But Slower and more mannered; the pleasure is in the costumes and the cast as much as the plot.

Knives Out2019

Rian Johnson takes the same brittle house-full-of-suspects shape and modernises it with real venom about class and inheritance, plus a detective as theatrical as Fitzgerald's.

But Glossier, wordier, and openly comic in a way that trades some of the original's chill for fun.

Clue1985

The board game turned gleeful farce — same trapped-strangers-in-a-mansion setup, played entirely for laughs with a cast that never once winks at the camera.

But Broader and sillier than anything Christie intended; treat it as a companion piece, not a substitute.

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

The Old Dark House1932

This is the genre's ancestor — sinister house, stranded strangers, a family concealing something — the blueprint Christie's island later refines into pure plot mechanics.

James Whale's gothic comedy-horror got there first: strangers stranded by a storm in a house full of secrets, atmosphere thick enough to eat. You can feel this film's DNA in every closed-circle mystery that followed.

But Creaky, campy, unmistakably pre-Code; it's a mood piece more than a tight puzzle.

Gosford Park2001

Robert Altman folds a murder mystery into a country-house ensemble drama about servants and masters, more interested in class friction than tidy clues.

But The mystery is almost incidental; go in for the social texture, not a tight puzzle.

Death on the Nile1978

Peter Ustinov's Poirot on a boat instead of an island, another all-star cast picked off one by one under the Egyptian sun.

But Stately and long; it luxuriates in its setting more than it races toward the reveal.

Sleuth1972

Strip the cast down to two — Laurence Olivier and Michael Caine trading traps and disguises in a single house, pure game-playing menace.

But No island, no ensemble — a completely different, much smaller kind of tension.

The Last of Sheila1973

A yacht full of Hollywood types playing a scavenger-game that turns real, scripted by Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim with real cruelty underneath the wit.

But Obscure and a little dated in its showbiz satire; the plotting rewards patience more than instant thrills.

See How They Run2022no page yet

A meta whodunit set backstage at a West End production of Christie's own The Mousetrap — fond, funny, and aware of every convention it borrows.

But Light where the original is lethal; it's affectionate pastiche rather than a real nail-biter.

Identity2003

Strangers stranded at a motel, picked off one by one, secrets unravelling — a pulpy, twist-heavy update of the exact same engine for a modern thriller audience.

But Broader, gorier, and reliant on one big twist rather than sustained, gathering dread.

Battle Royale2000

Same structural trap as Christie's island, transplanted from genteel dread into visceral survival horror — the arithmetic of who's left is identical, the register is chaos.

Take the exact mechanism — isolated group, dwindling numbers, no help coming — and run it through a very different engine: Japanese schoolkids forced to kill each other on a deserted island.

But Brutally violent and morally bleaker by far; this is horror-action, not drawing-room suspense.

Saw2004

Both hinge on an absent architect meting out judgment through a deadly game — Saw just drags that idea into torture territory and dares you to still find it satisfying.

A hidden judge punishes the guilty through an elaborate game they can't escape — Jigsaw is Christie's unseen host reborn as torture-horror, testing whether people deserve to survive their own crimes.

But Grim, gory, and utterly without the wit or elegance of the original — a much rougher, nastier cousin.